[a,b,c,d] = 1,2,3,4

[Joel Goldstick]

On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 10:32 AM, Cody Piersall <cody.piersall at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 9:16 AM, ast <nomail at invalid.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> [a,b,c,d] = 1,2,3,4
>>>>> a
>>
>> 1
>>>>>
>>>>> b
>>
>> 2
>>>>>
>>>>> c
>>
>> 3
>>>>>
>>>>> d
>>
>> 4
>>
>> I have never seen this syntax before. Is it documented.
>> Is there a name for that ?
>>
>> thx
>> --
>> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>
>
> That's called "sequence unpacking"
>
> Cody
>
> --
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>

The original example is one I haven't seen in the wild.  One nifty use
of this feature is to exchange values like this:

a, b = b, a

it saves the use of a temporary name